JWM Posted April 14, 2019 Share Posted April 14, 2019 Hi I am continouing series of US Navy machines - after three Grummans (Duck, Goose, Widgeon), three Curtisses (Seamew, Seahawk and Seagull) as well as three big flying boats (Coronado, Mariner and Clipper) time for PBN-1 Nomad - a modified Catalina. The machine was mostly produced within Land Lease for Soviet Union and used there in mostly in far east, so Pacific region. I am going to do her in Soviet livery. The academy kit is well known including hie main flaw - too small engine cowlings. I will try to do something with it. But first let me present the Broplan conversion set: There is also a new nose turret which I did not include on this photo. Here is instruction, but I did not followed it very literally, mode basing on drawings: I have painted inside of Academy kit, put what is to be put inside and glued fuselage. I cut out all vacu parts and I have cut out nose, rudder and top of fin from Academy fuselage. I put the rear part of hull on his place: (nose and tail are not glued yet! ) The wheel bays I closed from back with plastic plate and then on top I put Tamiya resing putty (as having no change of dimention during fixation) To be continued Regards Jerzy-Wojtek 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.1127 Posted April 14, 2019 Share Posted April 14, 2019 Jerzy, This is something to look forward to, if your Clipper build is anything to go by! You work at quite a rate: I wish I could produce models with your speed and skill. What's next?!😉 Good luck, P. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted April 14, 2019 Author Share Posted April 14, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, P.1127 said: Jerzy, This is something to look forward to, if your Clipper build is anything to go by! You work at quite a rate: I wish I could produce models with your speed and skill. What's next?!😉 I appreciete very much your comment - thank you! What next? (after Nomad) - I am thinking on cotinue series of naval machines. What exactly it will be is not sure.... Regards J-W Edited April 14, 2019 by JWM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted April 16, 2019 Author Share Posted April 16, 2019 (edited) Hi, The fuselage after sanding. Small correction still needed: I glued tailplane . and wings: And I also started to work on cowlings. The far too small Academy Catalina cowlings are very fameus. I measured them and it is 17 mm diameter. Or rather exactly 17.1 mm. My almost 50 years old Airfix Catalina has 19.2 mm diameter. Assuming the right value in Airfix kit one have to enlarge diameter by ~2 mm!. One of method of increasing cowling diameter is adding lenght of circuit. Approximating pi as equal 3 it means that the circuit have to be longer for about 6 mm! Not few indeed. My first attempt was following: with some hours intervals I cut cowling using electric saw and glued one by one spacers made of 1 mm plate. I did 5 of such cuts, so I expected increase of diameter to almost desired value. Unfortunately, the gain in diameter is smaller , it is just a bit more than 1 mm : Some space was lost due to width of saw and compression due to glueing. Apparently I have to do few more cuts. However it will required also incrase of diameter of fairings on wings... I am affraid If it will look OK. Anyway - to be continue Regards J-W Edited April 16, 2019 by JWM 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRK4m Posted April 17, 2019 Share Posted April 17, 2019 Don't bother, Brother, the Airfix cowlings are slightly too big... The original R-1830 diameter is exactly 48", so close-cowled engine should feature some 50-51" diameter. There was no need to use the clearance of more than 30mm between the outermost point of cylinder head and the cowling panel. 51" in 1/72 is 18.0mm and this the size that looks just all right on every 1/72 PBY model. Of course - when looking for the similarities - one cannot follow the DC-3/C-47 cowling dimensions, as their diameter increases all lenght back up to the firewall, that was designed to accomodate the 54.3" in dia 9-cylinder Wright R-1820. The PBY cowlings are cylindrical (i.e. not conical) in shape. Cheers Michael 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted April 21, 2019 Author Share Posted April 21, 2019 Hi, Since I increased diameter of cowlings to ~18 mm (so 1 mm) I had to increase also diameter of nacelles. I wraped around a belt of 0.5 mm thick plastic card: behind it I added some putty. Sanded and added again some putty, sanded. You know it.... Meanwhile I have looked at my one of first conversions which I did in age of 14 - the PBY5A by Airfix converted to PBY5 (Catalina I) with marking of 209 Squadron machine WQ-Z who found Bismarck in 26 May 1941. I did her in 1974, following profile presented in small book "Bombers of WW II" by Blandford publications. So I did her with serial W8406 which is now known as wrong (the correct one in AH 545) and this model has so many flaws (my mistakes) that I started to work on upgrading it a bit. All clear part were glued very gently, so I was able to separate them easily. I hope that I will pimp her up a bit just to give chance them to stay next to Nomad on shelf... Going back to Nomad. I applied first layer of top darlk blue and two layers of bottom white: This reveals some corrections needed in cowlings and nacelles. As you see I did work on tail which I forgotten to document on photos, sorry for this. There is a brass tube of 2 mm diameter as spar of horizontal tailplate. I would like to express here that I am very gratefull to @Ed Russell, who posted me a huge set of Nomad photos and also the most valuabe article which solved my doubts on details. Nomad had additional fuel tank and it has also additional tube for dumping fuel in case of emergancy, it is assymetric, only below one wing. I made a silicon for to copy it in resin to have one more. Therfore additional openings are on one wing. To be cont. Regards J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted May 1, 2019 Author Share Posted May 1, 2019 Hi Some progress: glued main canopy and blisters, further painting work done. Rubber de-icers needs some corrections. Then I con go to finishing works Comments welcome Regards J-W 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted May 4, 2019 Author Share Posted May 4, 2019 Hi The most importnt now is nose turret. The Broplan one is a bit too big - it has 18 mm diameter, should be 16 plus...So the opening would be too large. Moreover the nose turret has very complicated construction. The photo I;ve got from @Ed Russell (many thanks again for this help) show it: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/46980844914_476f0e1d45_b.jpg So you see that there i inner "core" - cylindrical one and a kind of lobster tail (made of moving segments) dome around. o it could be done in flying configuration (full dome) ore in start/landing/taxing with movable segments set down. I will do this second option. Regards J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted May 4, 2019 Author Share Posted May 4, 2019 One more dilema - the style of red stars. In article on Nomad in Sovoet service by Vladimir Kotelnikow it os explicite written that red stars were of 1943 style eith white and red lines around. Although on photos I see only white trim around. Here I do no see he read outside trim on PBY-6a from the same time it is rather only white (for me) Print scale for Soviet Nomad gives only white trim, on bottom invisible as white on white BTW - how it was with ither Land-Lease airplanes.? Do they follow all Soviet regulations regarding style of red stars or not? Since Nomads have also stars on top of wings, and Soviets from I think 1942 had no stars on top of wings it menas that regulations were rather not so precise. Cheers J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted May 4, 2019 Author Share Posted May 4, 2019 I pressed few domes I put it on a core made of plastic tube and, painted frames: Cheers J-W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted May 4, 2019 Share Posted May 4, 2019 Stars never seem to appear above wings on Soviet built aircraft and are often painted out on lend-Lease ones. However there are some exceptions. Nice work so far. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted May 4, 2019 Author Share Posted May 4, 2019 Ed, thank you. There are photos from 1945 with stars on top of Nomad wings and from 1948 with repainted.... So I will do with. But all on which bottom wing is seen with red star the stare is without any outline - on white undersurface white outline in nonsense....But no red outline as well... Cheers J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted May 13, 2019 Author Share Posted May 13, 2019 On nose there should be small red star - as it is also on MBR-2 frequently Regarding red and white or just white linnings or borders of red stars I am convienced that should be only white. lok at this PBY-6A from the same period Or Nomad: So despite the description presented in Nomad monograph by Vladimir Kotelnikov (Soviet Catalinas Part 2, ModelAircraft Monthly . March 2007) where expresis verbis it is said that style of red stars is with white and red outlines I decide to apply stars with only white outlines. Above presented photos shows that, at least for me. Regards J-W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted June 3, 2019 Author Share Posted June 3, 2019 (edited) Hi, I am back, sorry for long pause. I had some duties in my work, but also I did not found in my stash/drawer appropriate red stars so I started to look for possibilities and then I organized purchase of red stars decals - finally they are by Techmod, 1/48 sheet). Since I had initially in my stash PBY-5A by Academy, so amphibian, I I did not have also beech u/c. Thanks to @KRK4m I've received for moment the PBY5 model and I copied main legss of u/c in resin. The tail leg I made out of scratch. The main wheels were not suitable (in Academy kit they are in form of rubber tyre and plastic hub) - but I measured diameter - it is 11 mm and copied wheels from old ZTS model of PZL 37 Łoś. The rear wheels are resin copies of that from Academy. Still I have to do radar aerials and some more detailing and paint corrections, and finishing wethering etc... So for today it looks that way: The upper surface looks very unevenly painted but this is only due to delicate sanding of paint before varnishing. Should look OK after applying varnish. Cheers J-W Edited June 3, 2019 by JWM 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 Hi, I made radar aerials, attached soviet bombs (from Eastern Express MBR-2) and exhaust pipes. Matt varnish was applied from top: The repair of my old Airfix PBY-5 converted from 5a (when I was 14 perhaps...) as Bismarck Catalina gained some progress as well: As you perhaps can see I used squadron blisters and modifird main canopy - besided general correcions Cheers J-W 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRK4m Posted June 10, 2019 Share Posted June 10, 2019 Paradoxically for me the most notable difference in RAF version appearance is the corrected camo scheme and new colours :) Don't know whether it's the matter of Academy tooling or of the "longitudal" colour layout of the US camo but the PBN looks much slimmer than the Airfix PBY. Well done, Brother... Cheers Michael 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted June 16, 2019 Author Share Posted June 16, 2019 Dear all, Let say it is finished. More photos on RFI thank you for watching Regards Jerzy-Wojtek 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David H Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 And now you can have fun arguing with people who INSIST its a PBY, or a Catalina. Whats next? A PB2B-2? A PBV? -d- 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted June 17, 2019 Author Share Posted June 17, 2019 6 hours ago, David H said: Whats next? A PB2B-2? A PBV? I will finish repair of this mine almost 50 years old model of "Bismarck Catalina" (Airfix) and then ... Sikorsky S 43! BTW - of course, PBN1 is a variant of Catalina, no one can tell it differently, I am sure! Regards J-W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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